What are some quotes describing Nick Carraway and his purpose in the Great Gatsby?

"How do you get to
West Egg Village?' he asked helplessly.

I told him. And as I walked
on I was lonely no longer.  I was a guide a pathfinder, an original
settler.

Nick describes an encounter
he had a with a man who stopped him on the road and asked for directions.  Nick felt as if he
knew the area well enough to give directions, and this knowledge gives him a sense of
satisfaction.  Nick serves this role for the reader as well.  He serves as a guide to the
lifestyles of the very wealthy living in the Roaring 20s.  He is our narrator, and as such he
guides us through the old money of the Buchanans in East Egg, the new money of Gatsby in West
Egg, the hubbub of Manhattan, and the deathly pallor of the Valley of
Ashes.

Nick considers himself "that most limited of all specialists,
the 'well-rounded' man.  And he adds

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. . . life is much more successfully looked at from a
single window, after all.

Nick is that
"single window" from which we see the characters and events in the novel.  We must keep that in
mind as we read about the wild parties, the drunken episodes, and the family
squabbles.

Fitzgerald gives Nick a certain objectivity and free
passage, connecting him both to the Buchanans and Gatsby.  He is related to Daisy, and he lives
next door to Gatsby.  So Nick becomes a neutral observer for the ensuing conflicts.  He  knows
the background of Daisy and Tom, and from various sources and by association, he eventually
fleshes out Gatsby's story.

Not only is Nick a narrator, but he is
also a character that we must look at closely.  While he seems to record without bias his
observations of others, he is somewhat blind when he describes himself.  He is not as honest or
as moral as he claims he is, and he shows us also how easy it is to get caught up in all the
glamour and carelessness of those he hangs out with.